Haiku Inc.: Contractors, Haiku Code Drive, and Available Funds.

Several hot topics are covered in this update; new development contracts,
changes to our Haiku Code Drive program, and some notes about our immediate
finances.

First and foremost, Stephan Aßmus's contract has been renewed for an additional
160 hours. Anyone who has run a recent revision of WebPositive will have an
appreciation for the tremendous progress that has been achieved as a direct
result of contractual work with Haiku Inc.

Secondly, we are continuing to further refine the Haiku Code Drive. Last year
instead of allowing the community to select projects with the most appeal, the
student selection process was moved into the knowledgeable hands of our acting
mentors. This allowed them to pair the remaining & most promising students with
a mentor who is suitable for the project. Despite this improvement, when the
net results are viewed from a financial investment perspective, the results
were not as spectacular as we had hoped.

For this year, we are focusing on a subset of Google Summer of Code™'s goals;
and have decided to provide an existing student contributor a chance to work as
a contractor. Adrien Destugues, well known for contributing the Locale API
during his participation in Google Summer of Code 2009 has been selected. While
he is still eligible to apply, he has voluntarily withheld participation in
this year's Google Summer of Code as a student, opting to step up as mentor for
our project. Adrien's contract is for two months and will revolve around
improving the Locale API.

Currently our funds are approximately $10,000 USD. In our proposed budget,
$5,000 USD is reserved for operating costs and marketing purposes. As such it
is a priority to maintain that level, as it guarantees next year's costs.
Assuming the contractors successfully fulfill their obligations, our ability to
further Haiku by way of development contracts will be restricted. However, we
are always willing to receive contract proposals, as it is our responsibility
to identify ways in which financial support can boost Haiku.

As we have been accepted in Google Summer of Code 2010, there will be future
incoming money, $500 per student mentored. However, the amount of students that
we can mentor is influenced by several factors beyond our control. It is
worth mentioning that our PayPal account now supports EUR as a secondary
currency. This allows any incoming EUR-donations to remain as such, until it
is used or intentionally converted into USD. As you can imagine, this will
reduce losses by avoiding currency exchange fees. In time, we hope to continue
improving the means for receiving and sending money.

Comments

Good to hear the project is keeping reasonably afloat and I support the BOD's decisions presented, fwiw. I am glad that my secret hopes for an extension of Stephan's contract came true (hopes that he'd have the time and desire to continue and that the project would have the funds), and I'm equally happy to see Adrien getting a shot at things as well.

Does the proposed budge contain a breakdown of the "operating costs and marketing"? $5000 seems like quite a large chunk of Haiku Inc's funds. I certainly agree with being more selective about spending our donations than the Google money, given that some of the outcomes of previous students completely new to the project has been somewhat disappointing (no offense to any of them!) Adrien is definitely one of the most successful GSoCers we've had, so it makes sense to reward that success with another contract.